The Australian Survey of Social Attitudes - 2025 - Work orientations

The Australian Survey of Social Attitudes (AuSSA) is Australia’s main source of data for the scientific study of the social attitudes, beliefs and opinions of Australians, how they change over time, and how they compare with other societies.

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The survey is used to help researchers better understand how Australians think and feel about their lives. It produces important information about the changing views and attitudes of Australians as we move through the 21st century. Similar surveys are run in other countries, so data from AuSSA survey also allows us to compare Australia with countries all over the world.

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AuSSA is also the Australian component of the International Social Survey Project (ISSP). The ISSP is a cross-national collaboration on surveys covering important topics. Each year, survey researchers in some 40 countries each do a national survey using the same questions. Here are some examples of surveys in other countries that are the equivalent to AuSSA:

 

The ISSP focuses on a special topic each year, repeating that topic from time to time. The topic for 2025 is "Work orientations". This is the fifth time this has been the topic of the survey, having previously been the theme for the survey in 1989, 1997, 2005 and 2015.

 

​Data collection for the AuSSA 2025 - Work Orientations - is due to begin in May 2025, and due to complete in May 2026.

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How will participants be selected?

AuSSA aims to survey a representative sample of adult Australians. The fairest way of doing that is to draw a random sample from the Australian Electoral Roll. This means every Australian citizen has an equal chance of having their views included in the survey, and means that researchers are able to use statistical techniques to make inferences about Australian society overall on the basis of characteristics of the sample. ACSPRI has been named in a Federal Regulation as a permitted user of the Electoral Roll for the purposes of inviting persons to participate in the AuSSA.

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We will randomly select at least 5000 citizens from the electoral roll. Each of them will be posted an explanatory letter, followed by a questionnaire booklet and reply paid envelope. Up to three reminder mailings will be sent for participants who do not return a booklet. We expect around 1000 will return a completed questionnaire.

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​Selected Questions:​

  • ​Would you enjoy having a paid job even if you didn't need the money?
  • ​How important is job security? High income? Opportunities for advancement? An interesting job? Independence? Helping other people? Useful to society? Being able to decide days/times of work?
  • ​Do workers need strong trade unions?
  • ​What control do you have over your working hours?
  • ​How difficult would it be to take time off during normal working hours?
  • If unemployed, what would you be willing to do to get a job?​​

 

Contributing questions to the AuSSA 2025

 

Running a high quality, nationally representative survey requires the support of individual researchers willing to include their own questions in return for sponsorship of the survey. The fee will be $1,500 (exc GST) per question (i.e. per 'tick') - $1,250 (exc GST) for students for the full sample of 1000. Please contact surveys@acspri.org.au for more information. Each of the 4 waves of data collection is to a distinct sample (i.e. the design is a repeated cross sectional survey)

  1. The first wave of data collection is due to run in May 2025. Any contributed questions must be finalised by 28 March 2025.
  2. The second wave began data is due to run in August 2025. Any contributed questions must be finalised by 28 June 2025.
  3. The third wave of data collection is due to run in November 2025. Any contributed questions must be finalised by 28 September 2025.
  4. The fourth wave of data collection is due to run in February 2026. Any contributed questions must be finalised by 20 December 2025.

 

Access to results from AuSSA 2025

 

AuSSA data will be submitted to the Australian Data Archive in mid 2026 and should be available on the site in late 2026. We also encourage AuSSA contributors to present their results at the ACSPRI Social Science Methodology Conference.

 

 

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For more information:

Tel. 1800 122 251 (free call)
Email: surveys@acspri.org.au